Shweta Ketu

I came to Auroville at the beginning of 1996
as a 16-year-old fresh from the countryside of Canada near Montreal.
As I had spent, at an earlier age, a couple of years in the Sri Aurobindo
Ashram Kindergarten I had developed a subjective relationship with the
path of the Integral Yoga and was very moved by the ideal of the Life
Divine.

Coming to Auroville my expectations were certainly
utopian and since then I have adapted to the environment of Auroville
to the best of my capability.

As compared to most of the youth who were born here
I found myself withdrawn with a tendency in the last couple of years
to explore the world of books, and more and more the realms of poetry,
philosophy and literature started providing me with glimmers of their
beauty and true purpose.

Writing poetry for me has always been a tool for
my Sadhana and although I haven't experimented very much with different
forms and styles of poetry, I think there is still room for progress
in my attempts to write about the affairs of the mystic, the devotee
and also for mindful observation of what I interpret as my inner life.

Albeit we all have special and individual psychologies,
human life offers also us certain 'universals' that we can all strive
towards and it is these which I try to convey in my writing. I have
yet to apply my full concentration to poetry and those short ones on
my poetry
page are kind of notes along the way of some kind of inner experience
if we can call it that.

I like the poetry found in Sri Aurobindo's Savitri,
William Blake, Shakespeare, the Sufi poets and Goethe. Also the Sri
Aurobindo Ashram poets, who aspire to merge their inner progress and
to expand inner perception with their art, have touched me in a special
way.

The purpose of art for me is to transport us to
the source of our capacity for harmony, to intimacy with nature in a
such a manner that we may begin to feel more and more in tune with the
underlying delight of existence. I realize that this sounds kind of
vague but for me this is important since, in the context of transcendental
art and transpersonal culture, the aims and inclinations of the individual
may often seem obsolete as compared to the wonder of the spirit that
embodies all individuals and embraces all personal tendencies.

We are simply one of the many that belong to the
One expressing through any form of creative activity, whether it is
through having children or writing. And I think that this is the whole
point of life: to move towards that identification where we begin to
perceive the unity of the Divine in all manners of circumstance, working
through all entities belonging to this Universe.

What is the meaning of our own insignificant
existence compared to that?